or if anything should be done. santos is part of a very slim majority republicans will hold when they take over the house in jan. that is the looming question, of course. what comes next, what will kevin mccarthy do about with-touch he would not talk about it earlier today. and will the house ethics committee get involved? these are the questions we'll keep our eye on in the coming weeks. >> big questions. thank you. erin burnett out front starts right now. out front next, putin calls it a war. the russian president using a word he's outlawed to describe his own invasion. it is a major development possibly with serious implications. plus a former world leader and guest who's appeared on this

program in prison tonight, his health failing. his lawyers saying he's been poisoned. and morgues in china oesh flowing full of people who were sick from covid. the government is saying, though, they're not covid deaths. why? we're live in beijing tonight with a special report. let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight putin calls it a war. for the first time vladimir putin using the word "war" to describe his brutal invasion of ukraine. for ten months it's been called a special operation. in fact the word war has been banned. and then today hours after zelenskyy visited with biden in washington, putin said this. >> translator: our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict but on the contrary to end this war we have been and will continue to strive for

this. >> war. the word war is not semantics for putin. calling this a war, which again has not been allowed. it's been banned. it has serious implications because it allows putin to impose marshal law across russia if he wants to. and putin's use of the word war comes after his defense minister said russia was going to be upping its fighting force by half a million soldiers. so it is unclear whether putin finally slipped up in using the word war, but to be clear it is not a word he has used in ten months. and he said it as we're getting yet another phone call showing the dire straits. this was intercepted and provided to us by ukrainian intelligence. you're hearing from a russian servicewoman and she's talking about how bad things are in putin's army. listen for yourself. >> translator: they don't give a [ bleep ] about people anywhere. it's everywhere, not just here.

it's so awful. nobody cares about anyone. they just made camp here in this forest of small trees without any shelter or building, nothing. when they arrived they moved here and there, but in the end they made camp under the open sky amongst some small trees. they built a shelter from the ammunition boxes. [ bleep ]. it's unbelievable. nobody gives a [ bleep ] about the people. it's the same everywhere. >> when she says "they" she's referring to the commanders. the commanders don't give an f about the people anywhere. and this shows the group is growing even more influential. this group, a mercenary group of course in putin's russia is now getting weapons from north korea. and this matters because the group is notoriously one of the most brutal forces in the world even more brutal than putin's

actual army which has already committed some of the worst known atrocities in this war. and tonight for the first time reporters have spoken with russian soldiers who are responsible for tragedies, the massacre of civilians in bucha. it's a massacre putin has denied despite the clear evidence. >> translator: the dead bodies have been lying in the ruins for months on end decomposing, but nobody cared about them before that. and no one even noticed, just as no one remembers the hundreds of dead civilians in afghanistan. then it turned out it was all just a fake just like the fake in bucha. >> of course there was no fake in bucha. in just a moment i'm going to speak with one of the reporters who found the soldiers who did these atrocities, who committed to them and then actually spoke to them and actually spoke to them on the phone. first, will rippley in kyiv

tonight awaiting news of the return of the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. what are you learning, will? >> reporter: one note on bucha, erin. i stood near a mass grave with more than 100 men, women and children. people watched their neighbors sit in the streets and rot for a month because they were afraid the russian soldiers would shoot them, too, execution style if they moved them. that was the reality of life occupied by russia by people living in a suburb of kyiv. we don't know if president zelenskyy is back here in kyiv just yet. we do know there's video emerged tonight from the polish border where he met with the president of poland, and the obvious -- if he was taking the train hike he did on his way out he would have arrived back here by nu, but his movements are kept carefully and cl c

clesly guarded secret for obvious security reasons. it would make sense if he were to make an appearance tomorrow if the conference does continue. but where that is, whether he'll be showing up, what he'll be saying, those are all good questions. meanwhile the significance of putin calling this a war, russia has been making up their own narrative throughout this conflict. one tof lines they said was striking. they said the west -- the west was responsible for turning ukraine in their words into a hostile terrorist state. they're saying that the west turned ukraine into a hostile terrorist state as they continued bombing civilian infrastructure and making life miserable for millions of people. >> will rippley, thank you very much. live in kyiv tonight. and out front now i want to go to a video journalist for "the new york times." and i mentioned the incredible investigation you and your team have done over months about the massacre in bucha. so can you tell me how you were able to trace the russian soldiers? right, this isn't just like,

okay, it's russian soldiers. you got the exact unit and where they're from and their faces and names, who these individuals are and then got them on the phone. >> thank you for having me, erin. and yeah, it was like you mentioned a month-long process. and like your colleague was on the camera earlier, i was also in bucha in the earliest days of its liberation in early april and was witness to the bodies that were strewn along the roads and one particular some with their hands behind their bodies and executed. we setout to find who killed these people. through the course of our reporting we heard from residents who lived along the street that their phones had been routinely confiscated. so when russian soldiers trespassed and entered their homes and search for men of military age, they took their cellphones. so we asked ourselves could they

have taken cellphones of victims? can we identify who might have pulled the trigger or who might have been near that same crime using that sort of piece of evidence. so while interviewing families of those victims we asked for their relatives, their dead relatives cellphone numbers, and at the same time we obtained hundreds of thousands of phone records from ukrainian authorities. and we did a very simple search function, which we took every single one of the 40 victims phone numbers, and we sort of -- we looked for them in the phone logs. and we found that along this one road of at least 41 victims six cellphones were used to dial russia. six cellphone numbers belonging to five ukrainian victims were being used routinely throughout the month of march. so while we can't say that the soldiers who dialled -- you know, who dialled back home to russia killed those victims, we can say that those soldiers were

near the scene of the crime within hours of the killing of those victims. >> and you -- okay, and you then called those numbers? those cellphones are in russia, and you spoke to those people on the other end of the line whether it's families or the soldiers they gave the phones to. >> the multi-step process because the numbers dialled was a phone number. we identified using that phone number who the relative was, and by analyzing the social media accounts we figured out who the soldier was in that family. i don't speak russian. my incredible colleague masha does so together we prepared for the questions and masha placed those phone calls. she spoke to dozens of family members of over two dozen soldiers, and in two instances spoke to the actual soldiers themselves. those two soldiers confirmed their military unit, and they confirmed that they were in

bucha. one of those soldiers admitted that their command was to clear the road to kyiv. and he admitted that it was a systemic and deliberate clearing operation, meaning that anyone in their way civilian, non-combatant was ground for killing. >> was ground for killing. so admitted essentially to doing it if not to a specific murder. what was that conversation like? >> so i think in preparing for these conversations masha and i -- you know, to clarify ultimately it was masha who was on the phone, but our goal was to establish the presence of these soldiers. could we say these soldiers weren't in bucha, and could we say which unit they belong to? and ultimately we were able to identify that 24 soldiers belong to one military unit, and that's the 234th regimen which is a

paratrooper unit from western russia. and as they moved along one road over days and eventually over a month, they kept a trail of evidence. they kept using victims' phones, and they kept killing civilians. >> and then they take those phones and use them to call. it's incredible to imagine it, and it's amazing that you were able to track it down and do that extensive forensic war. that you can so much for coming and telling us about it, and of course all the hard work of you and masha and the other colleagues as well. and i want to go now to evelyn farkas, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, and you're asia, now executive director of the mccain institute. when you hear her lay this out, it seems the russians were systemically doing it, they admit to it, but would literally take the cellphones of people after they killed them of innocent civilians and use them to call home, and then bring them home -- bring them to their

relative to get that cellphone. just to imagine this, ai know w talked about it, but her team showed how it happened. >> there were some comparisons i saw on the internet. all they had were photographs. they didn't have what we have today video and then phone records you can trace back to people, but it is pretty horrific. the killing is against the vuneva conventions, and then taking the phones that's lootingch and the fact they can do that and sleep at night is pretty mind-boggling. >> you're talking beweeks and months these phones are being used. it's part of their life, which has a sick banality to it, for lack of a better description. putin used the word war today for the first time. if his use of that word ends up

being purposeful, that means he can do complete marshal law, complete total mass mobilization. what would that mean? >> i think, erin, it would mean a lot of unrest in russia. we saw when he announced the partial mobilization which was supposed to be only people of experience, which was a lie because that you were grabbing people off subways and they were also taking demonstrators and sending them to the front. if indeed he's now saying it's a war and he can mobilize any russian men of military age or perhaps older, that would make a lot of russians uncomfortable, and i think you'll see more of them fleeing. you already have seen the opposition, of course, quite angry because there are many people in jail right now including one of the pallbearers for senator mccain's funeral, a very well-known russian activist dissident.

people are in jail serving realtime for having called the war a war when it was illegal. and it's still technically illegal. so they're saying vladimir putin should also serve seven years. >> it would be amazing to see what happens here because, okay, could have been a slip of the tongue, but that is not something the russian president has done or a mistake he's made in ten months. it is a word with great meaning to him. thank you very much, evelyn, i appreciate your time. and next was it witness tampering? we have new transcripts coming in from the january 6th probe as we've been covering it this week. star witness cassidy hutchinson said she felt pressured by her trump aligned attorney. plus look at this picture. the former president of georgia, a pro-russian president and now in prison, and more on his foe vladimir putin on this show in 2017. >> the only thing that america can afford to show the russians,

that america is weak. >> tonight he's dying in prison. his lawyer and son say putin is to blame and you'll hear why. and more than 100 million americans in major danger right now. record setting cold, a once in a generation event they say. we have an up to the minute forecast. that heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. waiting. sometimes it's just inevitable.

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lawyer urged her to stop cooperating with the january 6th committee even if it meant risking a contempt charge. this is according to newly released interview transcripts from the committee. hutchinson says her lawyer assured her if she remained loyal to trump she would be, quote, taken care of. the lawyer also told hutchinson to down-play what he remembered because, quote, the committee doesn't remember what you can and can't recall. out front now ryan goodman, co-editor in chief of just security with the defense department. ryan, let's be clear any of us who have dealt with situations where you're testifying, if you're under oath you're supposed to answer what you remember. if you don't recall you say you don't recall. if you do recall, you answer to the best of your knowledge. hutchinson says this lawyer told her to -- specifically to down-play her knowledge, to not bring up certain things. is there any doubt in your mind as you read through this and what happened from the perspective of the lawyers that this constitutes obstruction or

this is wrong? >> there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever. he would have to say that he did not say these things to her. one of them is after she answers a question by the committee she doesn't recall, she says to him i need to tell them, and he says they don't know what you know. that's telling her to lie. >> right she's saying i recall and he's saying you don't. that's a lie. >> nixon lawyer's and senior aides went to jail for those kinds of things. he also says explicitly according to her this is to protect the president. if what she says is true, it's open and shut. the question is can she prove it or could the justice department prove it? and then we have a bunch of correspondenting information. she told her mother, she told a friend, contemporaneous she told someone else so they could arrange a back channel to the committee. he also did something very bizarre. he didn't give an engagement

letter for his services. there's probably an absence of an engagement letter. there were text messages giving her these job offers right before her testimony before the committee. >> the job offers are disturbing. to that point hutchinson also talked about an interaction she had with mark meadows, okay the former white house chief of staff so central to all of this. the committee says we don't know whether he's talking to the doj or not. she says the night before she's scheduled to go back to the committee for the second time a meadows aide tells hutchinson, quote, well, mark meadows wants me to let you know he knows you're loyal and you're going to do the right thing tomorrow and going to protect the boss. that's very clear. does this put meadows in legal jeopardy? >> absolutely. the only thing in some sense he can hang onto here he didn't say it directly. according to her that it's through an intermediary who's a senior aide to him, the current spokesperson for him. >> i seene intermediary but als

see words that are clearly direct. >> absolutely and part of a conduct of other trump aides. so he's in trouble, and they could use this evidence against him as a coconspirator. his aide is a coconspirator in that witness tampering. and out front next the former president of georgia, a putin critic, a man who is appeared on this show saying he's been tortured in prison. look at what's happened to him in one year. his son is my guest. and a balm cyclone nearly half the united states population under wind chill alerts from coast to coast at this hour. life threatening weather triggering states of emergency. we are tracking the storms. let's be honest. the rent-a-car industry is the definition of boring. and d the reason can be found in the name itself. rent - a - - car? you don't want a friend. you want the friend. you don't want a job. you want the job. the is always over a. that's why we don't offer a car. we offer the car. ( ♪ )

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tonight, was he poisoned by putin? just look at this. on the left putin foe mikheil saakashvili one year ago. on the right saakashvili today. his lawyers arguing in court today that the former president of the country of georgia, a long time putin adversary, was poisoned. they say that tests show heavy metals in his body, and they say putin is behind it. and you're going to hear the details in just a moment, because today saakashvili looked extremely frail. he attended this court hearing remotely. it was his first public appearance in months after he was imprisoned for corruption upon return to georgia from the united states. saakashvili's appearance coming just after the ukrainian president zelenskyy publicly called on the president to release saakashvili. he's a man appeared on this show multiple times. he say a loud champion for georgia on the world stage. he fought against putin when

putin invaded georgia. and here is what else saakashvili says is now happening to him in prison. >> do you recall specifically the time you were beaten when they removed your watch? >> at that time i was -- they were choking me. >> and were they stepping on your neck? >> they were stepping on my neck. >> nick paten walsh is out front to begin our coverage with more on mikheil saakashvili's story. >> reporter: this is what's become of one of the most influential men in the post-soviet world, mikheil saakashvili allegedly throwing things at an unidentified figure

in a clinic in his native georgia. he's in prison there on charges he says are trumped-up. authorities released these pictures to show what they call his quote abuse and aggressive behavior. the trailblazing former president has been on and off hunger strike demanding better medical care. this week ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy appeared to georgia to give him just that. >> translator: please make a decision that can save his life, the president said. transfer mikheil saakashvili to one of the clinics in ukraine, another european country, america. a new thorn in putin's side standing up for the first. the young american trained lawyer led street protests to unseat georgia's long serving president, former soviet, back in 2003. the so-called rose revolution was a shot of freedom in the region's arm. similar protests would follow.

>> they'll stay here all night and as long as it's necessary to stop mass scale fraud and rigging of these elections. >> reporter: he wants the face of liberty fluent in many languages and caused panic in the kremlin. the darling of -- he soon found himself at war with russia in 2008, a brief conflict in which putin said he would hang him by his balls. he didn't and georgia and its president survived. but by 2023 saakashvili left office unpopular and protested against despite the wid spread reform he had imposed on georgia. he got a second lease of life when he left for ukraine, but it was sweet and suddenly sour. ukrainian president metro poroshenko in 2015 gave him ukrainian citizenship so he could govern the region around odesa, but they quickly fell out. saakashvili accused por shengo

of corruption then began an ugly series of scenes, arrests, protell uses leading to saakashvili's return to georgia to face trial for abuse of power and hospitalization after hunger strikes. his rise and fall a parable of russia's continued grip over its empire. nick paten walsh, cnn, london. >> and that of course was nick paten walsh with that reporting. now i want to bring in one of mikheil saakashvili's lawyers, and edward skaaakashvili, his s. i want to show the side by side, just one year ago after he was arrested compared to how he looks today, frail and weak. these pictures are stark for anyone, but for you, edward, how hard is it to see your father like this? >> it's really awful. and thank you for having me. it's really awful.

and i think -- i mean what's different for me is that i've actually had a chance to see him. he was hidden from the public for months, but i've had a chance to visit him in prison over time. and the painful part there has just been watching him slowly decline and then more quickly in the last few months. and in a way as shocking as the images now are, how awful his health is, the up side is that at least now it's undeniable because the government has been making insinuations it's all fake, et cetera. but when you see this footage it's completely obvious how far he's declined. so that is kind of one bit at least as shocking as it is hopefully there's going to be more pressure and, you know, outrage at what's happened. >> a moment ago i played the audio clip that you had shared with us about mikheil. he was detailing one instance of

alleged abuse because of a watch he was wearing is what he says this was about. he told you he was assaulted when he was transferred from the prison to the hospital as well. and i want to play part of that exchange. here it is. >> i was drugged and beaten. >> you were beaten? >> for sure. >> when were you beaten? >> when they forcibly took me ou out of the -- >> allegations of abuse, physical assault, rapid deteriorating health as edward and talking about. just to be clear you believe that putin is behind this, right? >> yes, absolutely. and people forget that in 2008 putin did exactly what he's doing now in ukraine to georgia. under the color of darkness he invaded georgia. and just like president zelenskyy is doing today in

ukr ukraine saakashvili stood up and fought back. and because of this, the kremlin and putin specifically because his arch nemesis, number one enemy. and because of everything saakashvili did in westernizing the country was adverse to what putin wanted in the kremlin. and saakashvili tried to announce to the world that he foreshadowed everything that putin is doing today to bring the soviet republic back and to annex the territories that were previously part of the soviet republic. >> so -- so, edward, as massimo is talking about your father obviously was the president of georgia when putin invaded it in 2008. he knows putin. and even after he left office, he spoke out when he could to warn countries about putin.

he was very vocal about it. here's some of what he told me. this is in 2017. he raised his voice. he said this. >> he likes people he can really manipulate and intimidate. and the only thing america cannot afford to show the russians that america is weak because the only thing putin appreciates -- everybody knows that -- is sheer force. >> edward, your father believed putin was a threat to the world. he took great risk to expose that. he returned to georgia at risk of being imprisoned to make that -- to stand up for that. does he have any regrets now about speaking out or about returning? >> i wouldn't say he has regrets about speaking out. i think he very much is what he's always stood for. i don't want to speak for him. i would say that given what has happened, you know, that was a misstep because, you know,

obviously the writing was on the wall about how the georgian authorities are going to react. obviously it's been way worse than any of us were expecting. you know, it's one thing to put somebody in prison. and that's terrible for the family and everything, but to put somebody in this state after just a year of imprisonment where they quite obviously and literally are on the verge of fighting for their life, that's -- that was unexpected. so -- yeah, so i would definitely regret going back knowing that that's what would happen. but of course at the time it was difficult to tell. >> right. and massimo, when you talk about these heavy metals that have been tested for in his body, do you know anything about these and why they lead you to think about poisoning and putin, which of course, has been associated and accused of poisonings in the past. we know that's sort of a fingerprint of russia's tactics.

>> sure. we certainly know that's how they operate. and what we did is we composed a team of five independent medical experts, some of the top medical experts in the world, nobel peace prize winners, congressional medal of honor winners and a well-known toxicologist. and while i was in georgia getting the tapes that we listened to earlier, my neurologist was there with me and we took samples, hair and nail samples from saakashvili as well as a biopsy of tissue and those testing along with some of the blood testing results we received revealed heavy metals, arsenic, mercury, among others. so that is what told us that he was being poisoned. in addition to that he is undergoing what's called a poly

pharmacy. he's on a regimen of at least 14 different drugs and most of which are non-fda approved russian drugs. one of them in particular is highly addictive. and to a reasonable degree of medical serpt our toxicologists have indicated saakashvili needs immediate detoxification. and you can see the images from court today and his rapid decline. and he's dying. and without u.s. assistance and eu assistance, he will die in prison a political prisoner. >> edward, do you have hope that you will see your father again free and healthy? >> i mean i do have hope. it's a kind of hope against hope. it's a very difficult situation, but there is some hope just because of the level of consensus now building this is completely unacceptable. >> edward, thank you very much for joining us to talk about

your father. and massimo, thank you for being with us and sharing those tapes as well. thank you both. >> thank you. and next tonight, blizzard warnings are going up as more than 100 million americans brace for a once in a generation deep freeze. we have an up to the moment live update for you. and heart break at the border where the temperatures are dropping below zero soon. meet the human beings affected by title 42. you'll see a venezuelan family who made it to the u.s. on foot and was expelled immediately to mexico. and sell ya ♪ baahh! ♪ 'cause it hangs them up ♪ ♪ to see someone like you ♪ ♪ but you gotta make your own kind of music ♪ life gets bigger when you break from the herd. ♪ sing your own special song ♪ the volkswagen tiguan. ♪ make your own kind of music ♪

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tonight the bomb cyclone, 150 million americans, half the united states population under winter weather alerts. you're looking at blizzard conditions. these images that you're looking at are in nebraska right now. at this hour blizzard warnings already in eight states as this once in a generation -- that's what they're telling us it is -- winter storm is sweeping across virtually the entire country. life threatening weather triggering states of emergencies already. airlines already canceling more than 2,200 flights today. more than 6,500 delays, and it's going to be worse tomorrow, way worse. erie county new york tonight is just an example expecting up to 3 feet of snow. minnesota already has dangerous road conditions. spokane, washington, temperatures are at negative 27

degrees, which is nothing apparently compared to montana. florida is expecting its coldest christmas since 1983, in nearly 40 years. i want to go straight to derek van dam in the cnn weather center. it's pretty incredible to see something like this covering pretty much the entire country. where the most dangerous conditions expected over the next 24 hours? >> erin, this is like a big sucker punch to the central parts of the u.s. and this arctic outbreak, that is our main concern but second and also very important is the blizzard conditions that will settle in behind it. we'll try to highlight just the snow at first. from the national weather service an update from them to southern michigan. this is an area they've highlighted for the potential of snow squalls. that means visibility dropping below a quarter of a mile. here is the arctic front. it just moved through minneapolis, cincinnati you're next. your temperatures will tumble in the coming hours. interstate 80 moving east and west out of chicago all the way

into 96 across western michigan. that is an area that is going to be hammered by heavy snowfall. so this cold front marches eastward. the windy weather and the arctic air that settles in behind it, it is a one-two punch. its got its eyes set on the east coast, but i think we're going to keep that all rain. let's track this because the temperature drop here is absolutely phenomenal. nashville, you're sitting at 48 degrees. you advance this less than six hours, just by midnight tonight you're going to drop over 30 degrees fahrenheit and that's not the end of it. from d.c. to new york your temperatures tumble this weekend. >> incredible. looking at temperatures 9 degrees and this is not even with wind chill. tennessee down to 4 degrees. it's absolutely -- it's amazing to see this. derek, thank you very much. as we're watching this it's going to be crucial over the next 24 hours really 48 hours as it marches across the country. and next we're going to take you to the border where migrants are enduring what is bone

chilling temperatures dropping and dropping there. they are stuck outside, don't have the right clothes and everything else. and one family was turned away from the u.s. after a harrowing months long journey to get her from venezuela. we're going to take you to border live. and there's so many dead bodies in china's massive covid crisis right now they can't be burned fast enough. sounds disgusting to say it but this is what's happening. we're going to live to beijing and our salina wang. ♪holiday music playing♪ ♪ ♪ a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the number one cold shortening brand! highly recommend it!

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round of a-paws at&t 5g is fast, reliable and secure for your business. >> reporter: when jason and his wife walked across the rio grande with their two children

last week the family felt like they had finally escape their lives in venezuela's socialist nightmare. they were overwhelmed with tears of relief and joy. they survived an often terrifying 2 1/2 month journey traveling from south america into central america and mexico. did you think reaching this point was going to be so emotional? >> he says they never thought the journey from venezuela would be so painful. she tearfully said they took this risk for their children. the family stepped across the rio grande thinking they had reached the mountaintop. where are you? >> the family is now in mexico city .

it took five days to get pushed back down the mountain. this has to be very confusing for you. i don't understand he says. policy biden kept in place that was expelling migrants at the border. i don't understand it. to get into the united states, but getting in -- last week here in the el paso area alone, 3400 migrants under title 42. the restriction known as title 42 is still being used to quickly expel migrants. it is a confusing system and difficult for those migrants to figure out who stays and who

goes. they now have to figure out what to do next. when i saw you crossing into the u.s. you were crying. have you lost faith? >> i'm an optimist he says. i hope to touch someone's heart. my wife and son are depressed. we just want an opportunity. right before jason and their children crossed the rio grande last week they were so hopeful. they snapped this family selfie. jason says his family will not forget touching u.s. soil even if it was just for a brief moment. >> he says it was a strong blow to be sent back to mexico but that he doesn't want to give up and he wants to do whatever is necessary to give his wife and children a better life. >> reporter: and tonight on the streets of downtown el paso a potentially dangerous situation unfolding. temperatures are expected to plummet to about 19, 20 degrees.

we have noticed today that a much larger number of migrants on the streets with nowhere to go, shelter capacity overwhelmed. this is the door to the sacred heart church. in a few minutes migrants will be allowed in but there is a great deal of concern because many of the migrants will be sleeping on the streets tonight. >> those temperatures obviously way too cold for that for anyone to emerge healthy, possibly could die. ed, thank you very much. next the horror in china. crematoriums working overtime. and the government doesn't want you to know it's because of covid. wait till you see this incredible reporting and footage from beijing. for her. i may not be in perfect health, but i want to stay i in my home, where my family visits often and where my m memories are. i can do it with help from a prep cook, wardrobe assistant and stylist,

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tonight morgues overflowing looking at images of an overwhelmed morgue in china. workers at funeral homes and crematoriums reportedly working extra hours to deal with the surge in what they are calling covid deaths. now despite this china formally reporting no new covid deaths,

none. >> reporter: the burning can't go fast enough. the smoke behind me has been billowing constantly from all the bodies burning and these crates are all full of yellow body bags. workers later opened the metal containers here at a major beijing crematorium revealing rows of body bags as they load more coffins in the freezing cold temperatures. crematoriums in major cities are swamped as covid sweeps the country. china has only reported a small handful of covid deaths since reopening late last month. >> i spoke to a man earlier who said his close friend passed away from a fever. normally the hospital would hold the body but told him there are too many dead bodies. he said he has been waiting for hours and still has no idea if his friend's body can get cremated today. there is a long line of cars that snakes around the whole area waiting to get into the

cremation area. i'm in the parking lot right now and it is completely full of cars. i am speaking here because there are many security guards patrolling the entire area. grieving family members clutch photos of the deceased. some tell us off camera they know their loved ones died from covid and waited more than a day for cremation. busy shops nearby sell items with paper money, clothes, houses, and animals used in burial traditions strewn on the side of the road. a woman who sells flowers says she is running out of stock. a man selling urns says business has jumped. even the convenience store and crematorium grounds are getting busier. normally you aren't so busy, right, i asked? the man nods and tells me normally there is nobody here. it is not just in beijing. social media video shows crowded crematoriums and funeral homes around the country.

at this funeral home the man is saying, it's going insane. here it is packed with cars. vans carrying bodies stretch all the way to the distance in front of this crematorium. this is a covid designated hospital in beijing. there has been a steady stream of elderly patients in wheelchairs being let into this hospital. i spoke to a man waiting outside for his elderly family member who he said is very sick with a high fever from covid but he said this hospital is running out of bed space. i asked the worker outside of this hospital, did a lot of people die here? yes, every day, he responds. i asked, is it all because of covid? yes. people with underlying conditions, he says. china is now going through the painful reopening the rest of the world has already gone through, but it's not sharing the same data. the government now says it is narrowing the definition of

covid-19 deaths only to patients who died of respiratory failure directly caused by the virus. people we spoke to at the crematoriums may have said their loved ones died of covid but their deaths and so many others won't be counted in the official tally. it is no surprise that state media is ignoring the scenes we've shown in the story. for much of the pandemic chinese state tv was showing america's overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums repeatedly. the message was look at china's low death toll in comparison, proof that china's system is superior. even after reopening china still claiming the death toll is low, that less than ten people have died of covid this month in total. so amid skepticism over the number the government says it has changed the way it counts covid deaths. their method goes against the world health organization guidelines and will severely under estimate the true death toll. >> thank you very much. incredible images. the car lines with dead bodies.